Knitted fabric



Dec. 31, 1935. R, BEUTER ET AL 2,026,339

,KNITTED FABRIG Filed April 9, 1935 Patented Dec. 31, 1935 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE KNITTED FABRIC Application April 9, 1935, Serial No.15,368

4 Claims.

In the knitting of full fashioned hosiery fabric it is customary toemploy either a single yarn throughout or, in any event, a single yarnthroughout each course from edge to edge of the 5 fabric and toreenforce or splice the single yam fabric in the heel, sole and toeportions by incorporating therein additional yarn or yarns of the sameor different kinds.

Such splicing gives added weight, strength and durability to theportions mentioned but practically eliminates the elasticity normal tothe single yarn fabric, which elasticity is, of course, retained in theunspliced portions. The single yarn of the unspliced portion is, ineffect, anchored rigidly at the inner edge of the splicing and since itcannot move, as in the rest of the fabric, it is subjected to excessivestains which frequently cause it to rupture.

, This is particularly likely to happen. when a stocking is pulled on oroff, which is often done carelessly and roughly. Heavy strains areimposed upon the fabric in a direction longitudinal with the foot. Thespliced sole and heel resist these strains without stretching, whereasthe instep and upper foot portions made of single yarn stretchconsiderably except where the yarn enters the splice where it cannotstretch. The fabric is badly distorted in consequence and the greateststrain is placed upon the fabric where it is least able to sustain it.

This undesirable condition is acccentuated by the practice ofterminating the splicing at its inner edge in a substantially smoothline, either n straight or curved. -Such a terminal line offers thegreatest resistance to stretching and, consequently, the most rigidanchorage to the single yarn courses where they emerge from the spliceand concentrates the strain within an extremely narrow area.

Strains at right angles to the edge of the splicing are absorbed to somedegree by the ability of the loops of the single yarn portion to expandhorizontally but strains paralleling the edge of the splice or somewhatdiagonally thereto, which are the strains produced in pulling thestocking on and oil and which, as already stated, are likely to beextremely severe, cannot be so absorbed because they occur in adirection substantially parallel 4to the direction of the loops.

The object of this invention is to substantially eliminate the danger ofrupture of the sheer body yarn at the inner edge of the splice through anew construction at this point which provides much greater elasticity,distributes the strain over a much greater area and introduces aconsiderable amount of flexibility into the inelastic edgeof the spliceitself, permitting it to move or swing in the direction from which astrain progresses.

The fabric may be produced and the method performed upon a standard flatknitting machine without alteration of or addition to its parts and by asimple alteration in its mode of operation.

While the .invention is particularly useful in conectlon with sheer silkhosiery it will be under- 1U stood that it is not limited thereto butmay be included in` any fabric where the I conditions which it isdesigned to remedy are encountered. However, since it is particularlyvaluable in relation to sheer silk hosiery the accompanying draw- 15 ingand the following description will be limited thereto.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of the stocking of this inventionhaving a modified struc- 2o ture at the junction between the heel andsole splicing and the body fabric; and

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragment of the fabric of Fig. 1 illustratingdiagrammatically the loop arrangement adjacent the junction of thesplice 2 and the body fabric.

The usual construction of a full fashioned stocking consists of the bodyfabric, assumed to be made of a single yarn in the usual manner,reenforced or spliced in the heel, sole and toe. 30 The heel and solesplicing terminate at the inner edge in au substantially smooth line.

The contrast in weight of compactness between the body portion and thespliced portions depends. of course, upon the weight of the yarns em- 35ployed. Practically all present day full fashioned hosiery is extremelysheer and correspondingly fragile. whereas the reenforced portions,particularly the sole, are extremely heavy and often include cotton orother very durable yarns which, 40 while greatly increasing the strengthand wearing qualities of those portions, substantially eliminate allelasticity. Since the body portion of the fabric is much lighter andmuch more elastic it will stretch in any direction from which a 45strain is applied, with the result that the rigidly anchored extremelyfine yarn forming the body portion receives the full effect of thestrain along the line where it enters the splice.

This difficulty has been overcome by this in- 50 vention in the mannerillustrated in Fig. 1. The inner edge of the splice, particularly of theheel and sole, instead of terminating in a substantially smooth line, iscarried further into the fabric in some courses than in others to form aseries 55 Cil of small inwardly projecting rectangular tongues 4separated by courses 5 of unreenforced fabric. Each tongue 4 may, forexample, be four wales in width and each intervening portion 5 ofunspliced fabric may be two courses in width, although these proportionsmay, of course, be varied as desired.

In this way a serrated construction is produced at the inner edge of thesplice, the serrations being joined together by unreenforced fabric ofthe same weight as that of the body portion.

In ordinary fabric it is customary to make the loops of the splicedportions somewhat longer than those of the unspliced body to providespace for the reenforcing yarns. This is ordinarily done by rocking theneedle bar further back during the forming of the loops of the splicedportion of each co-urse than during the formation of the remaining loopsof the course, the transition between these two different loop lengthsbeginning a loop or two on one side and ending a loop or two on theother side of the inner margin of the splice. The mechanism for thusaltering the loop length during the formation of a course is well knownand does not require description.' i

If this customary practice were followed in this invention, thetransition between long and short loops would, obviously, occur at avarying distance from the edge of the fabric, depending upon whether ornot the course being formed were one involving a tongue 4, that is tosay, in the courses in which a tongue 4 is found the transition betweenlong and short loops will occur at the extremity 6 of the tongue,whereas in the intervening courses 5 the transition would occur at thepoint l. While a very small amount of additional elasticity might bethus provided by the single weight fabric between each tongue 4 thestructure would still be undesirably rigid because the loops of theseintervening portions 4 would be small, i. e. of the same size as thoseof the body portion in general and the strain upon the single threadfabric where it enters the splice would not be appreciably decreased ormore widely distributed.

In this invention the loops of which the portions 5 of the single yarnfabric between the tongue 4 are formed are of the same length as thoseof the same wales of the reenforced tongues 4. That is to say, they arelong as compared with the loops of the body portion I in general. Thetransition from these long loops to the short loops of the body portionoccurs, in the single yarn portions 5, in the same wales as it occurs inthe reenforced tongues 4, that is to say, along the general line formedby the extremities oftongues 4. Therefore, between adjacent tongues 4 isa small section 5 of single yarn fabric composed of long loops. Thisconstruction is clearly shown in Fig. 2.'

Each of these sections 5 is even more elastic and exible than the sheerbody portion I because the loops are longer and the yarn of which theyare composed is able to slip upon itself more readily. As a resultinherently inelastic tongues 4 which are connected by this elasticfabric derive a considerable exibility since they are able to swing upor down, as the case may be.

The sheer body fabric of small loops is therefore connected to thespliced portions by a structure which is elastic or flexible throughout.Any strains upon those courses which enter tongues 4 will be eased bythe flexing of the tongues and transmitted in part to adjacent elasticportions 5 and thence to other tongues 4. Similarly, any strains imposedupon the courses which include elastic portion 5 will be transmitted inpart to adjacent tongues 4, intermediate portions 5, and so on. Thus thestrain upon each wale or course instead of being largely concentrated ata single point on the margin of the rigid splice is distributedthroughout an elastic area of several courses and several wales beforeit is finally absorbed in the rigid main portion 2 of the splice.

The distribution of strain substantially eliminates the danger ofrupture adjacent the margin of the splice and incidentally improves theflt of the stocking by eliminating the abrupt transition from elasticsheer fabric to the inelastic splice, and providingan area able toadjust itself to the varying strains and conditions of service.

What we claim is:

1. A knitted fabric having an unreenforced area and a reenforced areathe loops of which are longer than the loops of the unreenforced arealying beyond it and which terminates adjacent said unreenforced area inspaced tongues connected by unreenforced fabric composed of loops of thesame length as those of the corresponding wales of adjacent tongues.

2. A knitted stocking blank having an unreenforced area and a reenforcedhigh heel and sole composed of loops which are longer than the loops ofthe unreenforced area lying beyond them, the inner edges of said heeland sole reenforcement being provided with spaced tongues connected byunreenforced fabric composed of loops of the same length as those of thecorresponding wales of adjacent tongues.

3. A knitted stocking blank having an unreenforced area and a reenforcedhigh heel composed of loops which are longer than the loops of theunreenforced area lying beyond it, the

inner edges of said heel reenforcement being provided with spacedtongues connected by unreenforced fabric composed of loops of the samelength as those of the corresponding wales of adjacent tongues.

4. A knitted stocking blank having an unspaced tongues connected byunreenforced fabric composed of loops of the same length as those of-the corresponding wales of adjacent tongues.

RALPH BEU'IER. ERWIN RUCKEL.

